Wet Laptop Computer

I spilled water onto my notebook computer Don't panic, learn what to do!

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Yesterday knocked an open bottle of water and managed to grab it before the whole thing spilled into my NEW VAIO notebook computer. But a good splash landed on parts of the keyboard anyway. The computer was running.

I grabbed a paper towel and tried to sop up some of the water very gently from the keys, powered down, unplugged the computer, turned it upside down to try to let the water drip out.

The I went to my desktop, the advice and read up on how to try to save the wet notebook, it’s actually very common sense. I’m writing this with my VAIO, and there seems to be no damage… I have touched wood! I used “spilled water on laptop” for a search term and got plenty of results. Here is the gist:

  1. If you spill something, let it be water, pop or juice are much more difficult to clean up, they leave sticky residue after they dry.
  2. After the spill, immediately turn off the computer, unplug it and take out any removable parts, including the battery and/or removable drives.
  3. Dry the wet you can see (in my case my card reader was wet and the camera card in it)
  4. Turn the computer upside down and sideways and check if any moisture is running out anywhere.
  5. Leave it standing like a tent, half open upside down for a couple of hours, then put a padding of paper towel on the keys, turned it upside down and remove one of the panels in the back to check if there is any moisture visible inside. You may be in luck if you see none.
  6. With the hair dryer, at low heat setting gently blow over the keyboard and into the openings where parts were removed. If there was a lot of liquid skip that step, you don’t want to blow the water further into the computer.
  7. Leave the computer upside down, with it’s paper towel padding over the keys for 24 – 48 hours.
  8. It is difficult to leave it alone. (I managed not to let my curiosity kill the computer.)

So, I turned it on just now. Everything seems fine. As I said, I touched wood… 🙂

Lucky me! Luck has everything to do with it, and a bit of common sense. I won’t have liquids near enough to have this happen again!

2 thoughts on “<span class="entry-title-primary">I spilled water onto my notebook computer</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">Don't panic, learn what to do!</span>”

  1. omg thank you. i just waste polish remover on my computer. and this is my 3rd one. after this, my dad id not buying me anything else. so i hope this works!!! and my warranty is up!

  2. I am so glad my post helps. Polish remover may not be so terrible, unless it’s a lot of it. Be patient, leave the computer alone for as long as you can (24hrs). Good luck!

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